The Trumps are no fan of oversight. To that end, President Donald Trump’s team has repeatedly and consistently stonewalled in the face of attempts from Congressional Democrats to examine their finances for alleged fraud — and Eric went on Fox & Friends this week to defend those rebuttal efforts, suggesting his half-sister Tiffany is a drunk in the process. Great job, Eric.
To be specific, he was discussing a lawsuit his family and business filed against House Democratic efforts to obtain Trump financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. Like in a similar recent case, the Trump family are attempting to keep the financial institutions from turning over the records that have been subpoenaed — although the Trump team is at least a little late since Deutsche Bank has already begun cooperating with a subpoena from New York Attorney General Letitia James stemming from the same allegations of bank and insurance fraud.
Still, they’re determined to thwart future cooperation, or at least, Eric Trump certainly put on an about-face in his latest of many appearances on Fox & Friends, railing of House Democratic investigations:
‘By the way, it’s not just my father. It’s – “Eric, I want to see all your bank records. I want to know how much Lara spent on baby formula for Luke. I want to know how many beers Tiffany had on a Friday afternoon in Georgetown.” These are literally the things that they’re asking for.’
WOW — Eric Trump throws Tiffany Trump under the bus here pic.twitter.com/7VvJdBAtI0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2019
It’s unclear whether that’s actually true or just a talking point drummed out of speculative chatter. One source speaking to CNN said the subpoena to Deutsche Bank is “for information about loans the bank made to Trump and the Trump Organization,” which is a far cry from the kind of far-reaching probe Eric is suggesting. Deutsche Bank, notably enough, suggested that it wasn’t exactly on board with the Trumps’ obstructionism — they’ve already faced enough legal scrutiny lately via employees getting caught in international money laundering. The bank shared:
‘We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations.’
The actual subpoenas themselves are elusive at this point. The House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees, which are jointly responsible for the push, have refused to provide copies to the Trump team, which says they’ve only learned details through conversations with the targeted financial institutions. In other words, Eric Trump is pushing claims on national television that he doesn’t even seem to have a shred of tangible evidence for but are instead based on hearsay from those with obvious personal interests in the case skewing in favor of the Trump team.
The subpoenas in question mirror a demand from House Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) for Trump financial records from his longtime accounting firm Mazars USA, which the Trump team has also responded to with a lawsuit, that one naming the financiers and Cummings.
House Democrats have remained undeterred in the face of the challenges, making every indication they’ll still be pushing forward. There is a clearly established legal precedent against taking down Congressional action based solely on speculation about intent.
Featured Image via screenshot
